Award-winning blog for book reviews, author interviews, and anything writing-related.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Interview with inspirational author Rhana A. Gittens

Welcome,
Readers. I’m happy to introduce you to today’s guest, Rhana Gittens. She’s here
chatting about her new inspirational, Christian book Perfectly Loved: Knowing Love on God’s Terms. Today is the start of
a short mini-tour she is doing with Write Now Literary Virtual Blog Tours.

Bio:

Rhana A. Gittens has a
Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Masters of Business Administration from
the University of Florida. She has a minor certificate in African-American
studies and is an accomplished writing tutor. She was born in Queens, NY,
raised in Lauderdale Lakes, FL and currently resides in Atlanta, GA.

Welcome, Rhana. Please tell us about
your current release.

Perfectly Loved is one of those books that forces you
to not just read it, but to apply it. It forces you to reflect on your own love
story with people and with God and determine where you stand in perfect love.
At the end of every chapter there is a personal testimony from people across
the US sharing how God’s love transformed them. Each chapter also includes
personal questions for the reader to reflect on. When reading this book you
can’t help but get closer to God and remind yourself of His love for you. It will
encourage you to step out of your fears, go after your purpose and bring others
with you along the way.

What inspired you to write this book?

This book
was birthed from a struggle. I was feeling broken by love and asking, begging,
and pleading for God to help me understand what real love is. He did. I have
always kept a journal. So as I was learning more about God’s love, seeing the
love He has given me, and appreciating the relationships of love that I have, I
wrote it all down. After about two journal entries I immediately knew I was
going to write a book and I finally understood the purpose of my story and my
life.

What exciting project are you working
on next?

I am
currently writing a guided journal to help people delve further into their
thoughts about themselves, their purpose, their story, and love. After
Perfectly Loved was released I received lots of messages of people asking about
their own lives, purposes, and how they could share their own stories. The
guided journal is practical in helping people receive the revelation of God’s
love for them and their purpose on their own and with their own life story as
the guide.

When did you first consider yourself a
writer?

I started
writing after reading “Go Ask Alice” in the 4th grade. I loved that
the anonymous writer of this book had kept a diary and because of her diary she
was able to build a story that she could share. I have kept a journal since I
was in the 4TH grade. I didn’t think I was a writer back then. I
just considered myself a girl with a diary. It wasn’t until college that God
started really leading me into writing as a purpose, career goal for life. My
original major in college was Physiology and Kinesiology. After the first
semester, I changed my major to journalism and the rest is history. It’s one of
the best decisions I ever made.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's
your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find
time to write?

I currently
work in project management. It’s a fulltime career. I enjoy it, but I enjoy
writing so much as well. It is as if writing always finds away to be a part of
my life. I tutor in writing part-time and now I am an author that wants to
author more books. Sometimes I feel like God is stretching time so that I can
get it all done. I write on the weekends and dedicate myself to completing 5
hours of writing a week. It’s difficult and takes lots of discipline because
sometimes I want to just go to Sunday brunch. But I am grateful that of this
current experience of balancing corporate America with writing. I’m not sure
how that may change in the future, but I am excited about the current.

What would you say is your interesting
writing quirk?

Some of my
very best ideas come in the car. I live in Atlanta and spend about 2.5 hours in
my car a day. I get a lot of good thinking in my car. I promise my car knows
more about me than people do.

As a child, what did you want to be
when you grew up?

I wanted to
be a teacher. I played “school” up until the 6th grade. I had
imaginary students and lessons. It was my favorite thing to do when I came
home. Ms. Gittens came out right after a bowl of ice cream, and right before Full House came on.

I'm listed!

Blog Tour Partner - Goddess Fish

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About Me

I'm a NH native and love New England. I love writing about the region, exploring it on foot, on my bicycle, and in my car. There are so many small communities and fun and interesting people in this area, that I could be here a lifetime and not do all it is I want to do. :)

I'm a moderator at The Writer's Chatroom that hosts live chats with guest authors on Sunday nights 7-9PM EST. Join the e-mail list to get notifications of upcoming guests, then stop in and join the conversation!